Entering and Editing

Worksheet Data

Exploring Data Types

An Excel workbook file can hold any number of worksheets, and
each worksheet is made up of more than 17 billion cells. A cell can
hold any of three basic types of data:
A numeric value
Text
A formula
A worksheet can also hold charts, diagrams, pictures, buttons, and
other objects. These objects arent contained in cells. Instead, they
reside on the worksheets draw layer, which is an invisible layer on
top of each worksheet.

Numeric values
Numeric values represent a quantity of some type: sales
amounts, number of employees, atomic weights, test
scores, and so on. Values also can be dates (such as Feb26-2013) or times (such as 3:24 a.m.).

Text Entries

Most worksheets also include text in some of the cells. Text

can serve as data (for example, a list of employee names),
labels for values, headings for columns, or instructions
about the worksheet. Text is often used to clarify what the
values in a worksheet mean or where the numbers came
Formulas
from
Formulas are what make a spreadsheet a spreadsheet.
Excel enables you to enter flexible formulas that use the
values (or even text) in cells to calculate a result. When you
enter a formula into a cell, the formulas result appears in
the cell. If you change any of the cells used by a formula,

Modifying Cell Contents

After you enter a value or text into a cell, you can modify it
in several ways:
Delete the cells contents.
Replace the cells contents with something else.
Edit the cells contents.

Deleting the contents of a cell

To delete the contents of a cell, just click the cell and press
the Delete key. To delete more than one cell, select all the
cells that you want to delete and then press Delete. Pressing
Delete removes the cells contents but doesnt remove any
formatting (such as bold, italic, or a different number format)
that you may have applied to the cell.
For more control over what gets deleted, you can choose HomeEditing
Clear.
This commands drop-down list has five choices:
Clear All: Clears everything from the cell its contents, its
formatting, and its cell comment (if it has one).
Clear Formats: Clears only the formatting and leaves the value, text,
or formula.
Clear Contents: Clears only the cells contents and leaves the
formatting.
Clear Comments: Clears the comment (if one exists) attached to the

Replacing the contents of a cell

To replace the contents of a cell with something else, just
activate the cell and type your new entry, which replaces
the previous contents. Any formatting applied to the cell
remains in place and is applied to the new content.
You can also replace cell contents by dragging and
dropping or by pasting data from the Clipboard. In both
cases, the cell formatting will be replaced by the format of
the new data. To avoid pasting formatting, choose Home
ClipboardPasteValues (V), or Hom eClipboard
PasteFormulas (F).

Editing the contents of a cell

If the cell contains only a few characters, replacing its
contents by typing new data usually is easiest. However, if
the cell contains lengthy text or a complex formula and you
need to make only a slight modification, you probably want
to edit the cell rather than re-enter information.
When you want to edit the contents of a cell, you can use
one of the following ways to enter cell-edit mode:
Double-click the cell to edit the cell contents directly in
the cell.
Select the cell and press F2 to edit the cell contents
directly in the cell
Select the cell that you want to edit and then click inside
the Formula bar to edit the cell contents in the Formula
bar.
You can use whichever method you prefer. Some people

Add new characters at the location of the

insertion point.
Move the insertion point by Using the navigation keys to
move within the cell
Pressing Home to move the insertion point to the beginning
of the cell
Pressing End to move the insertion point to the end of the
cell Select multiple characters. Press Shift while you use
the navigation keys.
SelectAutoFill
characters while
youre editing
a cell.of
Use the
Using
to enter
a series
mouse. Just click and drag the mouse pointer over the
values
characters
that you
want makes
to select
The
Excel AutoFill
feature
inserting a series of values
or text items in a range of cells easy. It uses the AutoFill
handle (the small box at the lower right of the active cell).
You can drag the AutoFill handle to copy the cell or
automatically complete a series.

Using AutoComplete to automate data

entry

The Excel AutoComplete feature makes entering the same

text into multiple cells easy. With AutoComplete, you type
the first few letters of a text entry into a cell, and Excel
automatically completes the entry based on other entries
that you already made in the column. Besides reducing
typing, this feature also ensures that your entries are
Using
AutoComplete
to automate data
spelled correctly
and are consistent

entry
If you have lengthy text in a cell, you can force Excel to

display it in multiple lines within the cell: Press Alt+Enter to

start a new line in a cell.

Entering numbers with fractions

To enter a fractional value into a cell, leave a space between

the whole number and the fraction. For example, to enter
678, enter 6 7/8 and then press Enter. When you select the
cell, 6.875 appears in the Formula bar, and the cell entry

Applying Number Formatting

Number formatting refers to the process of changing the
appearance of values contained in cells. Excel provides a
wide variety of number formatting options. In the following
sections, you see how to use many of Excels formatting
options to quickly improve the appearance of your
worksheets
Using automatic number

formatting

Excel is smart enough to perform some formatting for you

automatically. For example, if you enter 12.2% into a cell, Excel
knows that you want to use a percentage format and applies it
for you automatically. If you use commas to separate thousands
(such as 123,456), Excel applies comma formatting for you. And
if you precede your value with a dollar sign, the cell is formatted
for currency (assuming that the dollar sign is your system
currency symbol

Using shortcut keys to format numbers

The following are the number format categories, along with

some general comments:
General: The default format; it displays numbers as integers,
as decimals, or in scientific notation if the value is too wide to
fit in the cell.
Number: Enables you to specify the number of decimal
places, whether to use a comma to separate thousands, and

Formatting numbers using the Format

Cells

Currency: Enables you to specify the number of decimal places, choose a

currency symbol, and how to display negative numbers (with a minus sign,
in red, in parentheses, or in red and in parentheses). This format always
uses a comma to separate thousands.
Accounting: Differs from the Currency format in that the currency symbols
always align vertically.
Date: Enables you to choose from several different date formats.
Time: Enables you to choose from several different time formats.
Percentage: Enables you to choose the number of decimal places and
always dis- plays a percent sign.
Fraction: Enables you to choose from among nine fraction formats
Scientific: Displays numbers in exponential notation (with an E): 2.00E+05
= 200,000; 2.05E+05 = 205,000. You can choose the number of decimal
places to display to the left of E. The second example can be read as 2.05
times 10 to the fifth.
Text: When applied to a value, causes Excel to treat the value as text (even
if it looks like a number). This feature is useful for such items as part
numbers and credit card numbers.
Special: Contains additional number formats. In the U.S. version of Excel,

Essential Worksheet
Operations

Essential Worksheet Operations

In Excel, each file is called a workbook, and each workbook
can contain one or more worksheets. You may find it
helpful to think of an Excel workbook as a notebook and
worksheets as pages in the notebook. As with a notebook,
you can view a particular sheet, add new sheets, remove
Working
with
Excel
sheets, rearrange
sheets,
and copy sheets

windows
An Excel window can be in one of the following states:
Maximized: Fills the entire screen. To maximize a window,
click its Maximize button.
Minimized: Hidden, but still open. To minimize a window,
clicks its Minimize button.
Restored: A non maximized size. To restore a maximized
window, click its Restore Down button. To restore a minimized
window, click its icon in the Windows task- bar. A window in this
state can be resized and moved.

Moving and resizing windows

To move or resize a window, make sure that its not
maximized (click the Restore Down button). Then click and
drag its title bar with your mouse.
If you want all your workbook windows to be visible (that is,
not obscured by another window), you can move and resize
the windows manually, or you can let Excel do it for you.
Choosing ViewWindowArrange All displays the Arrange
Windows dialog box,

Closing windows
If you have multiple windows open, you may want to close those
windows that you no longer need. Excel offers several ways to
close the active window:
Choose FileClose.
Click the Close button (the X icon) on the workbook windows
title bar.
Press Alt+F4. a worksheet
Activating
Press Ctrl+W.
At any given time, one workbook is the active workbook, and
one sheet is the active sheet in the active workbook. To
activate a different sheet, just click its sheet tab, located at
the bottom of the workbook window. You also can use the
following shortcut keys to activate a different sheet.
Ctrl+PgUp: Activates the previous sheet, if one exists
Ctrl+PgDn: Activates the next sheet, if one exists

Adding a new worksheet to your

workbook
Worksheets can be an excellent organizational tool. Instead
of placing everything on a single worksheet, you can use
additional worksheets in a workbook to separate various
workbook elements logically.
Here are three ways to add a new worksheet to a
workbook:
Click the New Sheet control, which is the plus sign icon
located to the right of the last sheet tab. A new sheet is
added after the active sheet.
Press Shift+F11. A new sheet is added before the active
sheet.
Deleting
a
Right-click a sheet tab, choose Insert from the shortcut
worksheet
Ifmenu,
you no
longer
need
worksheet,
orthe
if you
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to get
rid
and
select
the aGeneral
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Insert
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Then select
Worksheet
click
either
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ways:
OK. A of
new
sheet
is added before the active sheet.
Right-click its sheet tab and choose Delete from the
shortcut menu.

Changing the name of a worksheet

The default names that Excel uses for worksheets Sheet1,
Sheet2, and so on are generic and non descriptive. To make it
easier to locate data in a multi sheet workbook, youll want to
make the sheet names more descriptive. To change a sheets
name, double-click the sheet tab. Excel highlights the name on
the sheet tab so that you can edit the name or replace it with a
new name.
Sheet names can contain as many as 31 characters, and
spaces are allowed.
However,
Changing
a sheet
tabyou cant use the following
characters in sheet names

color

: colon
,/ slash
] square brackets,?
Excel
allows
you ,\
tobackslash
change the,[background
color of your
question mark,
* asterisk
worksheet
tabs. For
example, you may prefer to color-code the
sheet tabs to make identifying the worksheets contents easier.
To change the color of a sheet tab, right-click the tab and
choose Tab Color from the shortcut menu. Then select the color
from the color selector box

Rearranging your worksheets

You can move or copy a worksheet in the following ways:
Right-click the sheet tab and choose Move or Copy to
display the Move or Copy dialog box .Use this dialog box to
specify the operation and the location for the sheet.
To move a worksheet, click the worksheet tab and drag it
to its desired location. When you drag, the mouse
pointer changes to a small sheet, and a small arrow
guides you.
To move a worksheet to a different workbook, the second
workbook must be open and not maximized.
To copy a worksheet, click the worksheet tab, and press
Ctrl while dragging the tab to its desired location. When
you drag, the mouse pointer changes to a small sheet
with a plus sign on it. To copy a worksheet to a different
workbook, the second workbook must be open and not
maximized

Hiding and Unhiding a worksheet

In some situations, you may want to hide one or more
worksheets. Hiding a sheet may be useful if you dont want
others to see it or if you just want to get it out of the way.
When a sheet is hidden, its sheet tab is also hidden. You
cant hide all the sheets in a workbook; at least one sheet
must remain visible.
To hide a worksheet, right-click its sheet tab and choose
Hide Sheet. The active worksheet (or selected
worksheets) will be hidden from view.
To unhide a hidden worksheet, right-click any sheet tab
and choose Unhide Sheet. Excel opens the Unhide dialog
box, which lists all hidden sheets. Choose the sheet that
you want to redisplay, and click OK

Controlling the Worksheet View

As you add more information to a worksheet, you may find
that navigating and locating what you want gets more
difficult. Excel includes a few options that enable you to
view your sheet, and sometimes multiple sheets, more
efficiently.
Zooming in or out for a better view
Normally, everything you see onscreen is displayed at
100%. You can change the zoom percentage from 10%
(very tiny) to 400% (huge). Using a small zoom percentage
can help you to get a birds-eye view of your worksheet to
see how its laid out.
Viewing a worksheet in multiple windows
Sometimes, you may want to view two different parts of a
worksheet simultaneously perhaps to make referencing a
distant cell in a formula easier.
To create and display a new view of the active workbook,

Controlling the Worksheet View

Splitting the worksheet window into panes
If you prefer not to clutter your screen with additional windows,
Excel provides another option for viewing multiple parts of the
same worksheet.
Choosing ViewWindowSplit splits the active worksheet into
two or four separate panes. The split occurs at the location of the
cell pointer. If the cell pointer is in row 1 or column A, this command
results in a two-pane split; otherwise, it gives you four panes. You
can use the mouse to drag the indi-vidual panes to resize them.

Keeping the titles in view by freezing panes

If you set up a worksheet with column headings or descriptive text
in the first column, this identifying information wont be visible
when you scroll down or to the right. Excel provides a handy
solution to this problem: freezing panes. Freezing panes keeps the
column or row headings visible while youre scrolling through the
worksheet.
To freeze panes, start by moving the cell pointer to the cell below
the row that you want to remain visible while you scroll vertically,
and to the right of the column that you want to remain visible while

Controlling the Worksheet View

Monitoring cells with a Watch Window
In some situations, you may want to monitor the value in a
particular cell as you work. As you scroll throughout the
worksheet, that cell may disappear from view. A feature
known as Watch Window can help. A Watch Window
displays the value of any number of cells in a handy
window thats always visible.
To display the Watch Window, choose
FormulasFormula AuditingWatch Window.
The Watch Window is actually a task pane, and you can
dock it to the side of the window or drag it and make it
float over the worksheet.

Working with Rows and Columns

This section discusses worksheet operations that involve
complete rows and columns (rather than individual cells).
Every worksheet has exactly 1,048,576 rows and 16,384
columns, and these values cant be changed.
Inserting rows and columns
Although the number of rows and columns in a worksheet
is fixed, you can still insert and delete rows and columns if
you need to make room for additional information. These
operations dont change the number of rows or columns.
Instead, inserting a new row moves down the other rows to
accommodate the new row. The last row is simply removed
from the worksheet if its empty. Inserting a new column
shifts the columns to the right, and the last column is
removed if its empty.

Working with Rows and Columns

To insert a new row or rows, use either of these
methods:
Select an entire row or multiple rows by clicking the row
numbers in the work- sheet border. Right-click and choose
Insert from the shortcut menu.
Move the cell pointer to the row that you want to insert,
and then choose HomeCellsInsertInsert Sheet
Rows. If you select multiple cells in the column, Excel
inserts additional rows that correspond to the number of
cells selected in the column and moves the rows below the
insertion down.
To insert a new column or columns, use either of these
methods:
Select an entire column or columns by clicking the column
letters in the worksheet border. Right-click and choose
Insert from the shortcut menu. Move the cell pointer to the
column that you want to insert, and then choose Home

Working with Rows and Columns

Deleting rows and columns You may also want to delete
rows or columns in a worksheet. For example, your sheet
may contain old data that is no longer needed, or you may
want to remove empty rows or columns.
To delete a row or rows, use either of these methods:
Select an entire row or multiple rows by clicking the row
numbers in the work- sheet border. Right-click and
choose Delete from the shortcut menu.
Move the cell pointer to the row that you want to delete,
and then choose Home CellsDelete Sheet Rows. If
you select multiple cells in the column, Excel deletes all
rows in the selection
Hiding rows and columns In some cases, you may want
to hide particular rows or columns. Hiding rows and
columns may be useful if you dont want users to see
particular information, or if you need to print a report that

Working with Rows and Columns

Changing column widths and row heights.

Changing column widths Column width is measured in
terms of the number of characters of a mono spaced font
that will fit into the cells width. By default, each columns
width is 8.43 units, which equates to 64 pixels (px).
Drag the right-column border with the mouse until the
column is the desired width.
Choose HomeCellsFormatColumn Width and enter
a value in the Column Width dialog box.
Choose HomeCellsFormatAutoFit Column Width to
adjust the width of the selected column so that the
widest entry in the column fits. Instead of selecting an
entire column, you can just select cells in the column,
and the column is adjusted based on the widest entry in
your selection.
Double-click the right border of a column header to set
the column width automatically to the widest entry in the

Working with Rows and Columns

Changing row heights Row height is measured in
points
(pt; a standard unit of measurement in the printing trade
72 pt is equal to 1 inch). The default row height using the
default font is 15 pt, or 20 px.
The default row height can vary, depending on the font
defined in the Normal style.
You can set the row height manually, however, by using
any of the following techniques. As with columns, you can
select multiple rows.
Drag the lower row border with the mouse until the row is
the desired height.
Choose HomeCellsFormatRow Height and enter
a value (in points) in the Row Height dialog box.
Double-click the bottom border of a row to set the row
height automatically to the tallest entry in the row. You can

Adding Comments to Cells

Documentation that explains certain elements in the worksheet
can often be helpful. One way to document your work is to add
comments to cells. This feature is useful when you need to
describe a particular value or explain how a formula works.
To add a comment to a cell, select the cell and use any of these
actions:
Choose ReviewCommentsNew Comment.
Right-click the cell and choose Insert Comment from the
shortcut menu.
Press Shift+F2.

Formatting comments
You can also display an image inside a comment Right-click the
cell and choose Edit Comment Then right-click the comments
border and choose Format Comment Select the Colors and
Lines tab in the Format Comment dialog box Click the Color

Formatting comments
Changing a comments shape Cell
Comments are rectangular, but they dont have to be. To
change the shape of a cell comment, add a command to
your Quick Access toolbar:
1. Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose
Customize Quick Access Toolbar. The Quick Access
Toolbar section of the Excel Options dialog box appears.
2. From the Choose Commands From drop-down list, select
Drawing Tools | Format Tab.
3. From the list on the left, select Change Shape, and then
click Add.
4. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.
After performing these steps, your Quick Access toolbar
has a new Change Shape icon

Adding Comments to Cells

Reading comments
To read all comments in a workbook, choose ReviewCommentsNext. Keep
clicking Next to cycle through all the comments in a workbook. Choose Review
Comments Previous to view the comments in reverse order
Hiding and showing comments
If you want all cell comments to be visible (regardless of the location of the cell
pointer), choose ReviewCommentsShow All Comments. This command is
a toggle; select it again to hide all cell comments.
To toggle the display of an individual comments, select its cell and then
choose ReviewCommentsShow/Hide Comment.
Selecting comments To quickly select all cells in a worksheet that contain a
comment, choose Home EditingFind & SelectGo to Special. Then
choose the Comments option and click OK.
Editing comments
To edit a comment, activate the cell, right-click, and then choose Edit
Comment from the shortcut menu. Or select the cell and press Shift+F2. After
you make your changes, click any cell.
Deleting comments
To delete a cell comment, activate the cell that contains the comment and
then choose ReviewCommentsDelete. Or right-click and then choose
Delete Comment from the shortcut menu.